Entities that operate telecommunications and computing networks must monitor and maintain those networks. Such entities include multimedia communication service providers, multimedia communication network providers, enterprise customer services and networks, large/small business services and networks, and consumer services, and home networks. Many of the operating tasks (i.e., provisioning, activating, and monitoring) and maintenance tasks are common among the networks of the various entities. However, each of these entities generally performs the operation and maintenance themselves, using various software tools to complete the operating and maintenance tasks. Often, the entities responsible for the networks develop their own software and maintain personnel responsible for handling the operations services. The computer systems, software tools, and personnel involved in handling the operations services for a network require a significant investment on the part of the each of the entities that own the networks.
When new technology is to be added to the network, the entities are forced to develop new operations support systems or modify existing ones to fully support the new technology. This results in a delay in the implementation of new technology and a delay in the delivery of new services to customers. In this context, customers may include those customers of a service provider network, customers of entities providing service to an enterprise network and/or large/small business network owned by the customer, as well as customers of entities providing service to a consumer/home network. Ultimately, there may be a significant loss of revenue associated with such delays in addition to the costs associated with providing the operations support systems for the new technology.